Many interactive TV features have been developed that allow for real-time interactivity with video content as it is being displayed on the TV. One example is voting/polling of audience responses during a program (e.g., viewer voting during the television reality game show, Big Brother™ that airs in the United States on CBS). Another example is an e-commerce application that allow a viewer to shop for and purchase items shown on the TV screen (e.g., interactive overlay technology, such as Overlay.TV®, commercially available from OverlayTV Inc). However, viewers often do not want to take any immediate action while watching TV because taking such action distracts from the viewing enjoyment. Also, even if the viewer is interested in taking an available action, the viewer may not be ready to take the action when the TV program makes the action available for selection. Furthermore, current interactive TV features are limited in the types of actions that can be taken.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a new paradigm of interactive TV regarding how types of actions related to TV content being viewed are managed and selected. The present invention fulfills such a need.